Prelude to the End
by Solidus-AI
Summary: He had done many things in his life that he wasn't proud of. Now, with the man who began all of this chaos, he had one final mission to do; and he was going to see it through to the end.


Seven-thousand, eight hundred and twelve.

He had been keeping count of how many beeps the life monitor made from the start of their journey. Frankly, for an old man, it'd gotten annoying an hour ago. But it was something to do, right?

Big Boss had been pushing the now vegetative Zero on his wheelchair for awhile now. After the collapse of the Patriot AIs, Zero's location was finally revealed, and Big Boss could finally end this brutal battle once and for all! But first, they had one more place to go: Arlington National Cemetery

Before Big Boss ended it all, he needed to take care of some loose ends.

He wasn't just going there to pay his final respects to his former mentor. That wasn't his highest priority.

Big Boss knew that HE would be there.

His former subordinate turned nemesis would most likely try to complete his final task in front of his own grave (although it wasn't Big Boss's body buried in there). When Big Boss awoke from his extended coma, there was a pre-recorded message waiting for him. It was made by the child he "adopted" long, long ago, Naomi Hunter. In the message, she went over everything that has happened since he was defeated at Zanzibar Land, up to the collapse of the Patriots. But there was one very important thing that she went over: FOXDIE. Naomi didn't forget to mention that she had injected a certain individual with the original strand of FOXDIE so many years ago. However, she said that just recently, that man was also injected with a new strand, programmed to kill the remaining Patriots that betrayed Zero. The new strand blocked out the old, mutated strand, keeping it from becoming a massive pandemic.

Big Boss let out a sigh. Since the AIs are no longer existent, that most likely meant that all of the other Patriots are gone. Sigint, Para-Medic, EVA, Ocelot...they were all gone. Now it was just Big Boss and Zero left. For the first time in so long, Big Boss felt lonely. But that wouldn't last long. Especially since this new strand of FOXDIE was made to finish off all members who defied Zero. That meant he was included in this list too.

Big Boss remembered when the Patriots were first made. The small team seemed to grow off of each other, and there was never a dull moment. One day, there would be meetings over world problems and the next day, Big Boss and Ocelot would be on a mission. Saving prisoners from camps, or taking out small bands of terrorists. Everything seemed swell.

Until Zero began spreading lies.

Zero would tell stories of the magnificient soldier known as Big Boss. At first Big Boss didn't seem uncomfortable about Zero reciting his old war stories. But then, things began to go downhill. Zero would begin to exaggerate these stories; more and more every time they were told. Eventually, they became full blown lies and Big Boss wouldn't have anymore of it. He walked straight up to Zero and told him off. Zero, being the sporadic type, got frustrated and soon the whole thing escalated into a full-blown argument. It attracted the attention of the other members and it came to the point where they had to be broken up. Days had passed and it seemed as if the bitter atmosphere the two had left would never leave. It wasn't until Big Boss, being the forgiving type, apologized for his overreacting and forgave Zero.

It was the fact that he was so forgiving, that soon led to the collapse of the organization.

During one of his missions, Big Boss was severely injured, and nobody was sure that he would survive. Zero, wanting to keep the icon of the Patriots alive, had him cloned, with Para-Medic leading the project. After much yelling, stress filled nights, and hair pulling. Two twin boys were born. Now let me ask you a question.

Have you ever seen a bull charge through a China Shop?

Cause that's exactly what it felt like when Big Boss found out. Rage couldn't even describe the emotion he felt as he lashed out at Zero. How dare he have him cloned against his own free will! This was unforgivible! He had had enough!

And just like that, Big Boss left. Attracting stares from his other allies as he walked out the door and never looked back.

"It's been so long since that incident and yet, I still don't regret my choice", Big Boss finally spoke up. "The world has changed since then, well, you should know after all. It was you who did the changing."

To an extent, Big Boss was right, Zero wanted to unify the world under one man's control. His. After Big Boss had left, Zero lost faith in humanity, and had Sigint create AIs for Zero to create a legacy with once his time was over. The concept seemed "decent", until something happened that nobody had accounted for.

The AIs crafted their own will. Although they wanted to bring about Zero's interpretation of the Boss's will, they were going to do it in their own way. They wanted not just world superpowers, but all of humanity to bow to the secret power of the Patriots. Thankfully for Big Boss, EVA, and Ocelot, there was a hero who stopped them from doing so.

Big Boss's son.

Sure Big Boss never acknowledged him as such, and even went so far as to kill him...twice! But after all these years of being in a coma, Big Boss finally understood that without a doubt, his son was his greatest legacy. And Big Boss was going to meet him one final time.

"Hopefully, I'm not too late", Big Boss muttered under his breath.

A gunshot rang out very nearby, scaring doves away as they flew for cover. Big Boss nearly jumped at the sudden increase in noise. In front of him, Zero, with the help of his life support, took in a deep breath, as if he too was startled by the sound. Big Boss must have been daydreaming for a while because when he looked up, he saw a man breathing heavily on the ground. Beads of sweat fell from the man's face.

Finally, after so long, they were face to face once again.

It seemed that his final mission was a failure. Good, Big Boss hoped he would fail at his suicide attempt. Now, with Zero beside him, it was time to make everything right.

"That's right. Good", Big Boss spoke towards the man on the ground.

The man tensed up at the sound of his voice, his breathing becoming ragged.

Big Boss spoke once again, "No need for you to go just yet".

"It's been a long time...Snake".

The man turned towards him, shock and awe decorating his visage. His refulgent blue-gray eyes stared in what seemed like utter amazement.

Slowly, he began to stand, gun in his right hand, the man called 'Snake' finally spoke.

"Big Boss?"

End


End file.
